Interest in micro-robotics has increased rapidly in recent years. This is due mainly to technology development in the fields of microelectronics, micromachining, and microactuation. Currently, it is possible to build and test miniature systems that include numerous features, including sensors, actuators, and embedded control subsystems. The trend toward miniaturization is seen not only in industrial applications, but in medical applications as well.
There are many industrial applications for micro-robots. Micro-robots are suitable for work in small and inaccessible places; for example, in dismantling and reassembling factory pipelines, inspection of small environments, measuring various parameters, miniature manipulation, repairs, micromachining, complex molecular and atomic operations, and precision tooling, grasping, transport, and positioning with nanoscale motion resolution. Micro-robots that mimic insects have been developed, though currently such micro-robots are of limited use due to their size and low-level agility (see Fearing, R. S. et al., Proceedings of the 2000 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, p. 1509–16 (2000)). Mobile micro-robots, such as swimming robots, are used for inspection and repair of thin pipes. Most of micro-robots concentrate on specific tasks and require high voltages, which means they cannot be wireless. Micro-robots with small power requirements generally are suitable only for simple tasks, like moving forward and backward.
There are an increasing number of medical applications for micro-robots, such as in biological cell manipulation, blood-flow measurement, microsurgery of blood vessels and endoscopic surgery (a minimally invasive surgery). However, micro-robots have not been applied in laparoscopic or other minimally invasive surgery to date. Laparoscopic surgery avoids the trauma traditionally inflicted in gaining access to abdominal organs by using long, rigid instruments and cameras inserted into the body through small incisions. While minimally invasive surgical procedures reduce patient trauma, pain, recovery time, and hospital costs, there are several drawbacks to the technique. For example, there are regions of the patient that are inaccessible with current methods, and there is a lack of tactile feedback and limited dexterity and perception.
Thus, there is a need in the art for micro-robots that allow one to treat pathological organs while preserving healthy tissues, yet provide dexterity enhancement, enhanced perception, improved access, and remote treatment capabilities. The present invention fulfills this need in the art.